Adrian nun among those arrested in Washington

The Adrian Dominican sister was among about 40 people arrested Tuesday in the rotunda of a Senate building during a protest aimed at getting federal lawmakers to help Dreamers — young undocumented adults brought to the U.S. as minors — obtain permanent legal status.

Being arrested, Garcia said, “was a very sobering experience.”

She was among a four-person delegation the congregation sent to Washington. Garcia, a member of the congregation’s general council, was joined by Sr. Attracta Kelly, O.P., an immigration lawyer and director of the congregation’s Immigration Assistance Office; and Sisters Corinne Sanders, O.P., and Heather Stiverson, O.P.

The protest was part of a response to a call by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a Catholic Call-In Day on Monday to create protection from deportation for the Dreamers in the face of the looming deadline of Monday, March 5, for the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

That deadline was declared moot Monday by the Supreme Court when it declined to intervene in a legal battle over the fate of the Dreamers under President Donald Trump, effectively extending a temporary reprieve to young undocumented immigrants shielded from deportation and providing Congress more time to come up with a legislative solution.

The high court rejected the Trump administration's unusual request to bypass an appellate court and review a lower court's injunction that has blocked Trump from terminating the Obama-era DACA program.

The lower court said the nearly 700,000 people already in the program may continue to apply for renewals of their work permits indefinitely beyond a March 5 deadline Trump set for most of them to expire. The administration is not required to accept any new applicants for the program.

That deadline’s nearness was a big reason for Tuesday’s protest.

“A sense of urgency and our ongoing involvement in immigration reform led us to be part of this,” Garcia said.

But while other members of the congregation have participated in and been arrested at acts of civil disobedience before, this was a new experience for Garcia.

“To have your hands put behind you, have them placed in handcuffs and be taken away by police was a very humbling experience,” she said.

She said the U.S. Capitol Police were very gracious to the protesters, who all knew their time in jail would last only a few hours. After paying a $50 fine, they were released. The Dreamers, she said, would not be as lucky. When they are arrested, she said, they will know they are leaving behind everything they have ever known to be sent back to a homeland most don’t remember.

The action started with Mass with Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, at St. Peter Catholic Church. Garcia said a row of Dreamers sat in front of her during the service. During Stowe’s sermon, she said, “tears were just flowing. And you could sense the pain these young people are feeling.”

After the Mass, the group of more than 200 people marched to the Senate building. Once there, the group joined hands, prayed and sang hymns. Garcia was one of three people — Sister JoAnn Persch, a Religious Sister of Mercy, and the Rev. Fr. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit, were the others — who spoke to the gathering.

““I have never been arrested in my life, but with the blessing of my community, I am risking arrest today as an act of solidarity with our wonderful Dreamers,” she said at the time. “To our leaders in Congress and in the White House, I say: Arrest a nun, not a Dreamer!”

After repeated requests to disperse by police were ignored, the arrests began.

Being arrested, she said, was not one of her goals in life “and not one of the things very many of us wish to experience. But this was was about bringing attention to the fate of these young people.

“My hope is that all of those who were upset at seeing a nun arrested will be just as shocked to see the Dreamers arrested too.”

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